Author: Sebastian

Just got the results for last night’s Indoor Silhouette match, and I’ve ended up in a shootoff with one of our better pistol shooters for the top spot for the pistol scoped class, which I guess means I must be doing something right.  I’ve been shooting into the high 20s and low 30s (out of 40) with pistol lately, which is a lot better than a few months ago.  We’ll have to see how the shootoff goes next week.  My competition is pretty tough.

Someone mentioned in the comments the other day about not having the money to get into competition, which I don’t think should really be a problem.  I shoot our indoor smallbore pistol matches, and IHMSA smallbore with a Ruger Mk.III Hunter 22/45 topped with an inexpensive BSA red dot scope that I bought from SayUncle for a few measly bucks.  My only nod to the exquisite is the Volquartsen trigger kit I put in, because the Ruger factory trigger is kind of awful.  When I shoot air pistol matches I shoot a Crossman 2300S.  I replaced the grips and added a peep sight to the rear, but the whole rig was under 350 dollars.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get started competing.  In fact, you should probably start with cheap equipment, and only upgrade when you feel like the equipment is holding you back.  You’re far better off spending the money on ammunition and shooting more, than spending the money on expensive equipment you won’t be good enough for starting out.  If money for ammunition is really a concern, shoot air guns.  Not only are air guns cheap, but the ammunition is too, and if you have a basement, you can practice in it.  The skills you learn will transfer to other shooting disciplines.  Competition is a lot of fun, and good at helping you develop your shooting skills.  Money doesn’t have to be an object.

Joe is a little insulted about the whole Scoutten-Boomershoot kerfuffle, and says:

In his followup comment he says he doesn’t want put anything “on TV that could alarm the anti-gunners”. I disagree. I am of the opinion that alarming them over Boomershoot then making fools of them is the more appropriate tactic (ask me sometime in private how we have baited them but they failed to take the bait). But if he doesn’t want to do that I don’t see a reason to attack him over that judgment call.

I think some would probably assume, based on my general support for not pushing beyond the general public’s comfort zone and understanding, that I believe it should never be done.  That is not correct.  I believe pushing too far is unwise, but you have to push some, otherwise you never move the ball forward.

Scoutten has some legitimate concerns about public perceptions, but I think his thinking is not necessarily clear about what perceptions we ought to be concerned about.  The overwhelming message we want to get across is that the shooting sports are safe and fun, that gun ownership and interest in shooting is not abnormal or unhealthy, and that it’s perfectly natural for people to want to defend themselves, their families and their communities.

We must be concerned about public perception when trying to do this, but that perception needs to be tailored toward getting people to overcome their prejudices about gun owners and people who shoot.  We properly eschew presenting people shooting in camo, shooting at an old, beat up school bus, or many of the other things Jim mentioned because they reinforce rather than break down prejudices and stereotypes.  Without proper context, context which is not possible to present in a short TV segment, people do not understand what the are seeing and wonder what these people are preparing for.

When I look at an event like Boomershoot, I see something that attracts people from all walks of life.  I see something that’s organized and put together by someone trained and licensed to handle explosives.  I see an event that starts with education and safety, namely a precision rifle clinic.  Most importantly, I see ordinary people enjoying themselves with firearms.  All these things can be easily highlighted in a TV segment with proper storytelling and editing.  Sure, there are some people that would be appaled by the idea of Boomershoot, or a machine gun shoot, but those are people who won’t be reached by any kind of positive coverage of any kind of shooting. I think we need to spend far less time worrying about which kinds of shooting activities do or don’t look favorable to the public, and worry more about telling the story of gun owners and shooting.  Let the public get to know ordinary gun owners, who have families, work at ordinary jobs, go to ordinary churches, and lead ordinary lives.  Do that, and it won’t matter whether they shoot a bolt action .22, an AR-15, a machine gun, or whether they get a thrill shooting at high explosives.

Shooters have a story to tell, and I’m grateful there are guys out there like Jim Scoutten and Michael Bane out there telling it in new, interesting, and entertaining ways, and presenting it to a mainstream audience.  We need that.  But I think we need to tell the whole story, and machine gun shoots and events like Boomershoot are part of that story.